The Social Catch-Up

With the fast pace of social these days, it’s incredibly hard to keep up with the updates. I mean, just as we start understanding a new feature from one platform, another goes ahead and gets even more complex! Here’s what we know about social lately, and the updates from your favourite platforms that might help your biz.

Snapchat

Snapchat has unveiled Snap to Store. Snap to Store reveals a whole new way of advertising which will give marketers a thorough understanding of location-based activities allowing them to track online to offline conversions. Ok so what does this mean for a business?
Snap to Store lets retailers see which Snapchat ads are most successful in driving users into stores. There’s also a funky dashboard to measure these conversions.
While big-guns 7-Eleven, Wendy’s, and Paramount Pictures have been trialling this incredible new technology for months in the US, Snapchatters worldwide will now have the opportunity to trial Snap to Store. For brands and businesses the Snapchat App has just increased its appeal.

Facebook

Facebook updates always get us excited, and this new feature is set to be the biggest yet.
Facebook has entered the land of augmented reality. Meaning, third party developers will now have the opportunity to develop filters which can be viewed through the Facebook Camera on any phone. Does this sound a little like snapchat? Sure, it does. But we are told it’s going to have its very own spin and will be much more customisable and have far fewer limitations. We are excited to see how brands jump on board with this one and how far they take it.

Instagram

See: Snapchat
Just kidding!
While Instagram has copped SO much flack for launching Instagram videos (which feels like a rip-off of Snapchat’s entire concept), we feel they have totally redeemed themselves with their latest feature, Instagram LIVE.
What we love about this feature is that unlike Facebook Live, the video is only available to those using the Instagram App at the time of the video. No replay, no rewind, nothing. If you’re streaming live you can see who is watching your video and because it’s live you can shout out to all of your viewers. You can also see comments popping-up so you can have a live Q&A with customers as you walk them through your range, services, anything!
This is going to be huge for celebrities and brands and for the regular Joe, it’s loads of fun. And the best thing is, it feels personal. In such a broad space, this is really refreshing.
So, Instagram live for the win – we say.
In addition to this, Instagram has now announced that it will increase the functionalities available via their website www.instagram.com meaning you can now share images via the website, and not just the app. For social media gurus, this is huge.

LinkedIn

If you’re a LinkedIn user, you will have noticed the fresh look and added features that came into play earlier this year. To continue to increase the user experience the professional network has introduced further features – striking while the iron is hot.
One feature which we are totally digging is the ability to filter your notifications. You can now customise your notification preferences to minimise inbox clutter.
Further to this, in an attempt to feature more live news stories, a “Trending Storylines” feature now appears in your feed. These are selected for you specifically according to your industry.
Not an entirely new feature, but more of an upgrade is the ability to edit your profile picture similar to Facebook.

Twitter

Here’s what Buzzfeed have to say about the latest Twitter update – Live video.
“The platform has allowed Twitter to offer 15 second and 30 second unskippable ad formats, the type advertisers typically pay networks top dollar for.” And it’s had some huge success. Live Video has proven to be very successful for Twitter especially for big events in the US such as the Oscars (attracting 6.5 million viewers) and the Election Day nabbing 8.6.
If Twitter had lost any of its momentum, its gained back its street cred with this feature.
In other Twitter news, the new recommended articles feature means the platform has become even more news focused. By offering articles in the newsfeed it means users might not look elsewhere for their daily news-fill such as Facebook.
Here’s how the recommended articles feature works:
To ensure you don’t end up with a whole lot of click-bait and irrelevant articles, Twitter promises a thorough algorithm to ensure you are seeing articles that you want to see. And if you’re seeing things that you don’t want to, you can click the “see less often” tab on the right-hand side.

Pinterest

This is perhaps the last time we will report on Pinterest in our Social Catch-Up report. Why? Pinterest wants to shift away from being a player in the social media game. How? They’re doing this by removing the “like” mechanism on their pins.
With the hope of streamlining the Pinterest experience, Pinterest hopes to maximise engagement. The “save” button remains with all the functions it has always had – i.e. pinning to your folders. But it’s sayonara to the “like” button for now.
Their goal is for more “saves” by ditching the “like” button taking it back to its roots of saving pins to public boards. It’s certainly a step to set themselves apart from social giants such Facebook and Instagram. What does this mean for business? It’s niche, not a necessity for your social plans.

Need help integrating your social platforms with your website? Need some advice on your social media/marketing strategy? We can help!